Inducing Cross-Sector Enrollment for Community College Students through Burden Reduction

Although most community college students intend to earn a bachelor’s degree, few successfully transfer to a four-year university. California’s cross-enrollment policy was intended to reduce transfer barriers by allowing community college students to take courses at public universities, yet participation remains extremely low. We present results from a student-level randomized experiment at three California community colleges designed to reduce informational, logistical, and financial barriers to cross-enrollment. Despite substantial student interest, the intervention increased applications by only 1.2 percentage points and successful enrollment by 0.7 percentage points. Results underscore the limits of individual-level supports in the face of complex procedural barriers.